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“My children were crying on top of my wife’s body.”
That’s one of many quotes from survivors featured in “Terror in Mumbai,” a new HBO documentary narrated by Fareed Zakaria. It’s solidly in the running for the most profoundly disturbing hour of television I’ve ever seen. Now, a year having passed since the attacks, and with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh currently visiting Washington, it’s a good time to reflect
On Tim Berne and Matt Mitchell
I have a fun Q&A with Tim Berne and Matt Mitchell up at PMP: the online magazine of the Philadelphia Music Project. The PMP mag used to be an annual print book sent out to members and not available commercially. It’s been reborn as a bloggy, regularly updated WordPress site. Much better.
Which Muslims?
On the planet where rightists and tea-partiers live, “Muslims” are engaged in an undifferentiated jihad against the West; all are guilty until proven innocent. On the planet where some lefties and liberals live, “Muslims” in the West are terribly offended by the U.S. and NATO making war against “Muslims,” which leads to tragedies like the massacre at Fort Hood. On
Uganda responds
Ugandans do not take kindly to being told, by a president of a country thousands of miles away, that Idi Amin was a great man after all. [Update: Not that present-day Uganda doesn’t have its problems…]
The week on disc (58)
In case you missed the last one… Ted Sirota’s Rebel Souls, Seize the Time (Naim) Bobby Previte, Pan Atlantic (Auand) Laura Andel Orchestra, Doble Mano (Rossbin) Alarm Will Sound, A/rhythmia (Nonesuch) Arturo Stable Quintet, Call (Origen) Wadada Leo Smith, Spiritual Dimensions (Cuneiform)
Most overrated music-maker of the ’00s
This one’s easy. Kanye West. Other suggestions welcome.
Political odds, ends
I didn’t vote for him on November 3, but Mike Bloomberg has done the country a service and I wanted to acknowledge it. In stark contrast to his predecessor, the insufferable demagogue Rudy Giuliani, Bloomberg has voiced support for Eric Holder’s decision to try KSM and other 9/11 defendants in a civilian court here in New York. One now sees
Obama hails Yoani
Via NYT’s The Lede, President Obama has directly addressed questions posed by courageous Cuban blogger Yoani Sánchez, who was recently harassed and roughed up by Cuban security officials for the great crime of blogging. The NYT post also remarks on a new Human Rights Watch report titled “New Castro, Same Cuba,” the thrust of which I don’t need to spell